Harley Beach

Down on Harley street in Westhaven neighborhood the city demolished an old apartment block revealing a sandy expanse reminiscent of a beach. Looking more carefully the other day, and I noticed a view of palm trees and emerald green water of the Caribbean sea! Who knew there was such a treasure nearby, this will surely boost tourism in the area.  

Harley Beach palm trees, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Colourful barricade and other iconic scenes

Perhaps the city was feeling bad about putting ugly barricades that get graffiti on them, so this one downtown had a dozen or so colourful placards branded with transportation symbols. Additional barricades including concrete dividers, fence with blue tarp, signs, and pylons completed this iconic summer Montreal scene. Oh, and that is beautiful Montreal in the background! 

Colourful barricade, watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, June 2026 

 

Park Dalhousie is found along st. Hubert street near Old Port, it used to be a train yard with many parallel rails, now its a manicured sitting park with historical displays. These benches sit in front of a small field of purple puff-ball flowers growing under the shade of trees. Getting the perspective correct was key here, so I started with a fain paint outline of the path and benches before filling in the colours. 

Parc Dalhousie purple puff balls, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Rue Notre Dame is elevated here with what used to be a train bridge one could assume. A lot of the area is sectioned off since the city is working on the new neighborhood where Molson Brewery used to be. It will become a multi-use housing and park project, with views of the river.  

Rue Notre Dame elevation, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

 

Peeking through the construction fence I got a glimpse of a giant crater where Molson's brewery used to be. The main part of the brewery with its iconic sign is still up, its just off to the left of this scene. In the background is Jacques Cartier bridge and Park La Ronde off to the right. One day this crater will be a community development, the Molson family donated the land to the city. Their new brewery is an enormous modern facility down in Longueuil.

Molson's crater, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Canal paintings feeling like summer almost

Looking east along the canal towards downtown, I painted the blue water with indo blue (PB60) and raw sienna (PBr7) waves to give the impression of a windy day. Plenty of greenery was here, I used mixes of yellow (PY154), orange-yellow (PY110), and green (PB36). Dark green (PBk31) plus the yellow-orange paint gave shadow areas depth. 

Canal path chimney, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Looking the other way, here the fence along the canal does a zig-zag where there used to be a stair case down to a wharf perhaps. There are also mooring posts here and there where barges would have thrown ropes. In the background you see part of an iconic pale-green footbridge. 

Zig zag fence canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Taking a VIA train will pass over this bridge on the way downtown Montreal. It went by as I painted but too late to include it in the painting. This is a great place to stop and paint, I painted Night Goose on this location, one of my most viewed blogs of the year so far. Replacing the graffiti with my initials is always fun. 

Low train bridge, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Paint drops, new tubes of paint

Its starting to pale in comparison, making abstract with watercolour versus making abstract with digital sketchbook app. But the digital images are teaching me a lot and pushes me to make watercolour paintings more intense and saturated. In this watercolour, I tested out the new paints I just received from Kama Pigments, an excellent artisinal art supply store in Montreal. They have Daniel Smith and Holbein brand paints at great prices, and I use their synthetic squirrel brushes. In the painting you see bright yellow called imadazole yellow by Holbein (PY154),  and by Daniel Smith there are permanent orange (PO62), raw sienna (PBr7), raw umber (PBr7), quinacridone purple (PV55), and indothrone blue (PB60).

The only one I have never used before was the raw umber by Daniel Smith, although I had one by M. Graham which used honey in the formula. I liked the colour of the M. Graham one but the honey-based paint tend to melt in the summer. In the winter, the honey-based paints activate quite well though, so that is a plus since I paint outside throughout the winter no matter how cold it gets. Luckily, the Daniel Smith raw umber is the exact same colour profile, a dark-chocolate, rich neutral brown perfect for making tree bark, fresh earth, or black coffee hues. 

Paint drops, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

Digital sketches Abstract

This is what happens when give an artist like me, a prolific doodler, a powerful sketchbook digital app. Endless variety of art. Its interesting because the range of tools, patterns, colours and contrast is staggering. In this example I combined the gradient tool with transparent brush strokes and some stamping features to create an ominous world claw in grey scale. 

World Claw, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

A simple line drawing was embellished with colourful splash stamps and a transparent grid. Airbrushing on the sides and open spaces gave an ethereal smoky glow. 

Pattern Spillover, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

This one started as a pattern arrangement in grey scale, with colourful neon electrical waves. Then I got into gradient fill and image tilt features, finishing with some well placed paint splatters. 

Dimensional broken record, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Using a standard marker tool, I found an option menu and selected colour multiplier. Somehow it was taking the colour attributes (hue saturation value) and multiplying them where two brush strokes overlapped. I added a few black brush strokes here and there to balance the left side of the composition. 

Colour multiplier, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

 

The colour scheme and patterns ended up looking like a Madonna rock video from the 80's... black, white, pastels, and mesh textures. To make images like this requires a sense of composition, its something I can feel viscerally. So my stomach and nervous system help guide artwork creation reflexively.  

Material Grill, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

Digital sketches surrealism

With a rainy day, no location painting I thought I would post some recent digital sketches I made with Sketchbook app while waiting for various things in life like dentist etc. This is a surrealistic portrait of Cilei!

Potted head, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

Which makes this a surrealistic portrait of me? 

Primary head tilt, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

While painting in Point st Charles I saw an electronic advertising sign that was turned off, but had the most incredible violet and blue-violet glare. I stared at it for some time thinking about making a painting, then just decided to remember the colour patterns and make a digital sketch afterwards. It became intestinal violets. 

Intestinal violets, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

You have heard of a millipede, how about a billipede? It has a billion legs and glows green sometime in the future. 

Billipede earth, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000

In this sketch I was playing around with the various paint brush tools. Its easy to do digital, but this would be hard to paint in real life. I am learning more about art and design from these digital sketches, and my location painting improves. 

Ice cream dream float, Sketchbook, digital 1600 x 2000 

Neat colours in the Point, legal wall

Point st Charles is a working class neighborhood, although isn't every neighborhood 'working class' ? I found a way in today via the Lachine canal bike path, on a street called Rue Island off st Patrick. A train was going past on an overhead rail, with a fire-truck attending to an emergency on street level. Painting the lights on the fire-truck was key to making this painting work... I first established the red and orange outlines of the lights, then surrounded with a purplish grey to give contrast. Its more about what goes around the lights, has to be grey and darks, then contrast makes it pop. The light effect on the fire-truck is just like I remember seeing it, you get the sense of urgency and action. I am standing on Grand Trunk road looking south on Hibernia road. 

Train over fire truck, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026

On Grant Trunk road, this sports center is considered a legal graffiti wall... anyone can paint on it no problem. There was so much paint on the wall, it was peeling off in great sheets, dozens of layers visible like strata in an archeological site. The artists also painted over this garbage bin so many times it became abstract art. Painting with watercolour by hand was tricky, and I had to run through my whole palette of colour options to complete this painting. Fun. Next time I will bring along some spray paint. 

Painted bin legal wall, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, June 2026 

Here is a photo of the wall where the paint layers peeled off, you can see the remains of various murals that were painted over again and again....